Cornell Cooperative Extension Leads Farm-to-School Buying Program

Students at Beverly J. Martin Elementary prepare vegetables as part of a farm-to-table program, offered by the Ithaca City School District, in partnership with CCE-Tompkins. Photo by Lara Parrilla,

Read the press release below about recent work to increase the proportion of local produce served in public school cafeterias in Tompkins County!

Tompkins County school districts, K-12 students, and area farmers will benefit from a new Farm-to-School buying program that aims to increase the amount of local produce served in our county’s public school cafeterias starting in 2019. The project will run for two years and is expected to impact 31 local public schools, one public charter school and 11,175 K-12 students in Tompkins County.

Cornell
Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County (CCE-Tompkins) will receive $92,829
to coordinate these efforts. The award is part of $1.5 million in funds
announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo in December 2018 for a statewide
Farm-to-School program within his No Student Goes Hungry initiative, which aims
to alleviate food insecurity in schools, especially in higher poverty
areas. Feeding America reported 14,060 residents in Tompkins County were
food insecure in 2016, 2,740 of whom were children under the age of 18. Funds
were awarded to 18 projects and educational organizations that serve over
420,000 K-12 students across New York State.

A collaborative
of local school district food service staff, foundations, agencies and other
area nonprofit programs helped to develop the Tompkins County proposal. To help
local public school districts incorporate more fresh local produce into their
cafeteria meals, the Park Foundation plans to support a series of food service
trainings through the kitchen facilities of Tompkins Cortland Community
College’s Coltivare Restaurant. CCE-Tompkins, the Food and Health Network of
South Central New York, the Youth Farm Project, and the Coalition for Healthy
School Food, among other collaborators, will provide support around menu
planning and promotion, as well as other educational activities to promote
student awareness and consumption of fresh, local ingredients. Faculty and
graduate students from Cornell University’s Master of Public Health program
will oversee monitoring and evaluation of the project and farm-to-school
activities across Tompkins County, to ensure continuous improvement and
long-term project sustainability.

The
Farm-to-School Project is expected to enable Tompkins County school districts
to reach the procurement benchmark of 30% New York State food served, enabling them
to qualify for a reimbursement up to 25 cents per meal under the terms of the
2018 NYS No Student Goes Hungry legislation. This represents a 19.1 cent
increase from the 5.9 cents per meal now received and could significantly
improve school meal budgets overall and their long-term ability to spend more
on locally produced ingredients.

“New York is home
to world-class agricultural products, and the Farm-to-School program connects
these fresh, locally sourced ingredients to our students,” Governor Cuomo stated
in his December announcement. “This record funding delivers on our promise to
provide fresh, healthy meals to all New York students and spur economic growth
for our farmers and growers in every corner of the State.”

Students in
Tompkins County will benefit from the Farm-to-School Project in several
ways. According to the National Farm to School Network, exposure to local
foods and nutrition education can increase children’s willingness to try new
fruits and vegetables, leading to improvements in diet quality, behavior, and
educational performance. If project goals are met, 11,175 Tompkins County
students will have access to fresh NYS produce through school meals as well as
a wider range of higher quality and more consistent farm-to-school educational
activities.

Benefits to
regional farmers from Tompkins County’s Farm-to-School Project alone will include upwards of $100,720 more
school food dollars expended on local produce each year, according to Silas
Conroy, Supply Chain Director for Headwater Food Hub.

Headwater Food
Hub will aggregate and deliver produce for the Tompkins County Farm-to-School
Project. Headwater is a regional food collaborative representing more than 140
sustainable New York farmers and producers, in the Greater Rochester, Finger Lakes,
Western New York and Downstate regions. Headwater aims to help eliminate
barriers to
farm-to-school
procurement across New York State. In 2017, Headwater connected over 100
farmers and producers to over 100 schools and institutions, reaching over 200,000
students and staff. Schools and institutions spent $135,000 on NYS products
through Headwater in 2017-2018 alone. Headwater also procures, processes and
delivers 3,500 snacks each week for five Ithaca City elementary schools in
Tompkins County through the Fresh Snack Program, a nonprofit program of the
Youth Farm Project.

Questions about the Farm-to-School Project in Tompkins County should be directed to Lara Parrilla at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, (607) 272-2292 or [email protected].